Original T/A racing photographs, late 60's & early 70's

[Jon Mello]

Please post only vintage photos from the original era '66-'72. Modern day photos of Historic Trans-Am photos
can be posted in a separate thread or viewed on the Historic Trans-Am website ( www.historictransam.com ).


Mark Donohue's Penske prepared Camaro, Sebring 4-Hour Trans-Am, March 1967

Photo by Craig Fisher

[Jon Mello]

Johnny Moore's Camaro leads the Mustang of Sam Posey during the '68 Daytona 24-Hour race. Moore's Camaro was the first Z-28 sold to the public.

Photo by Bill Warner

[Jon Mello]

Charlie Kolb #22 Camaro, 1967 Sebring 4-Hour Trans-Am tech inspection (downtown Sebring).
I believe the car owner was Porsche racer Fred Baker, from Miami, Fla.

Photo by Craig Fisher

[Jon Mello]

Bobby Johns driving the #54 Camaro at the Paul Revere 250 night race, 7/4/67. Note Hurst sponsorship. This is the
same car as seen in the previous picture. Car sponsor was Norman Johnson, owner of Miami Speedway Park.

Photo: Daytona Speedway archives

[Jon Mello]

Craig Fisher's Z-28 at '67 Sebring tech inspection. This car is a true Z-28 which was repainted
with gold accents by Gorries Chevrolet in Toronto, Canada. Gorries called these cars Black Panthers.
Craig earned the first points for Chevrolet in the Trans-Am by virtue of his second place finish
at the Daytona 300 Trans-Am, Feb 3rd, 1967. Craig also earned the first points for Pontiac in
Trans-Am when he switched to a Firebird in the middle of the '68 racing season. Great driver,
very underrated.


photo by Craig Fisher

[Jon Mello]

Dick Guldstrand in the Dana Chevrolet sponsored Camaro, 1967 Sebring 4-Hour Trans-Am.
Dick co-drove with Bob Bondurant in this event.


Dave Friedman photo

[Jon Mello]

Photo taken on the streets of London, April 1967. This is the "sister car" to the Dana Camaro
driven by Dick Guldstrand. It was built at the same time by Bobby Joe McDonald at Dana Chevrolet
and it was driven by car owner and driver Thomas F. Lynch. It ran as car #28 at Sebring and then
left immediately afterward to race in England and Europe over the summer and then returned
Stateside to race in the Las Vegas 350 Trans-Am in the fall of '67. Raced by Tom in Trans-Am thru 1969.


Photo: Mike Haemmig Collection

[Jon Mello]

Bob Brown in the maroon #5 Camaro and Craig Fisher in the #3. On the grid for the
start of the '67 Sebring 4-Hour Trans-Am race. Brown's car was built with the help
of "Murph" Mayberry, same guy who built Mark Donohue's first Z-28. Fisher's car was
built by the legendary Doug Duncan, who resides in the Canadian Motorsports Hall
of Fame. By the way, Craig Fisher is in CMHOF also, both deservedly so.


Photo by Ken Graham

[JoeC]

thanks for starting this section. There is some great history on the early Trans Am Camaros.
here is a picture of a 67 Z/28 that Yenko Chevrolet had

[Jon Mello]

Joe, thanks for posting the picture. Of note about that particular car, it was not a real Z-28 but was a 6-cylinder car that Don Yenko bought
at a dealer auction. Jerry Thompson and his partners at RST Engineering in Clawson, MI prepared that car for Don to race. It was not race
prepared by Yenko. This was told to me personally by Jerry Thompson himself. You will notice that it is a Marina blue car but has black stripes.
The black stripes were not available with Marina blue unless you got a black vinyl top. You can see that the stripes on the back of Yenko's car
go pretty much right up to the bottom of the rear window. If you look at the Johnny Moore car below (photo taken at the '67 Sebring Trans-Am)
you see original Z stripes didn't go that far up. Might have been an opening for debate there had I not spoken with Jerry Thompson and gotten
the inside story. Thompson was the original driver for the blue car while Yenko was serving a 6 month suspension for ignoring a black flag.


Photo: Petersen Publishing

[Jon Mello]

Joie Chitwood, Jr pours some brake fluid into the master cylinder as they are doing a brake bleeding job
prior to the '67 Sebring 4-hour Trans-Am. Blue Chevy truck behind Joie has a Dana Chevrolet license
plate frame on it. Probably towed the Dick Guldstrand car out to Florida from California.


Photo by Craig Fisher

[Jon Mello]

Lots of old Trans-Am racing photos from the classic late '60s and early '70s at the following link...

http://public.fotki.com/gwadagone/trans-am-racing1966/

[Bruce302]

This pic is not exactly as it seems. It is a Camaro, but before this it was a Titus/Godsall (Pontiac T/A Team) built customer car.
One of 6 cars constructed for the '69 season, it had a lot of trick parts. The Pontiac factory was giving a bit of help to the team and providing engineering advise and parts.

There is one train of thought that these cars were Camaros to start with, but they would have been body shells, and separate panels perhaps.

This particular car was supplied to Richard Brown, Canadian racer, and he campaigned it originally as a Firebird in orange from the 69 St Jovite race onwards, and later, 70 onwards as a Camaro, to legitimately use the Z/28 302, which the Pontiacs had been allowed to use in 68 and 69, as it helped get another manufacturer on board.

The car was raced as a Camaro by several subsequent owners, but when it was no longer deemed to be raceable it was stripped of the brakes and gauges (which went into a street car) no doubt the engine and gearbox found new homes, but the body was literally buried. It will not be unearthed.

I do not know who took this pic, but I ould like to graciously thank the rightful owner, and credit that person.

[JoeC]

here is another picture showing RST sponsorship on front fender
 
Jerry Thompson, Don Stoeckel, Dick Rutherford, (RST) worked together at Chevy and raced together. They also had a side business where they sold racing parts. I have seen Yenko receipts where they sold parts to Yenko in 1966-67 for racing Camaros.

The address was RST Engineering 11631 Monsbrook CT., Utica, Mich. 48087

Jerry ran the Yenko Stinger Corvair race car for Yenko Chevrolet winning D/P SCCA national championship in 1967
and Don ran the 1967 L88 DX OIL Corvette in 1967.

I don't know how much they were able to race the 302 Camaro in 1967 but I was told Jerry raced it and Don did also and Don won a SCCA Sedan race with it. (non Trans Am race)

[Jon Mello]

Daytona 300 Trans-Am, February 3, 1967. Mark Donohue's first race in a Camaro.


Photo by Craig Fisher